Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2003 03:34:56 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Norm Saunders Subject: Assateague Discussion Bird MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable After birding for a bit with Mark Hoffman, Jim Stasz, and Joe Alexander and his wife near the maintenance yard just east of the Bayside Campground (where we enjoyed the sparrows noted in Mark Hoffman's previous message), Fran and I moved west to the end of Bayside Road. =20 As we drove slowly around the parking lot, Fran pointed out a bird in a tree beside the canoe rental shed. We both got only a very quick look at it before it flew across the parking lot to the cedar stand Jim Stasz noted from Saturday. We spent about 45 minutes tring to relocate the bird but were unsuccesful, so we sat and discussed what we had seen at some length. Here's what we came up with: The bird was "tanager-sized", 6-10" in length. It had a generally dusky yellow body and head, black wings, and the wings had two wing bars. Fran remembered that one of the wing bars was definitely white and I remembered seeing a yellow wing bar. Neither of us can definitively say that the upper wing bar was yellow and the lower wing bar white. Fran had the sense of a faint red wash on the bird's head around its bill. I have a vague impression of redness around the head, but other than the sense that it was only a trace, can't be more specific than that. Now it gets interesting. The bird appeared to be accompanied by another yellowish bird. We had an equally short time to gain a gestalt of this bird before it flew away with or in pursuit of the first bird. What we both agreed on was that it too was "tanager-sized", roughly the size of bird number one, was generally all-over dusky yellow in coloration, and definitely had no wing bars nor was the wing dark in color. Given the very short observation period, my sense was basic-plumaged summer or scarlet tanager. Neither Fran nor I are confident of the identification of the first tanager as Western, simply because our observation time was so limited. I would welcome some discussion from others as to what other birds might fit the description we gave. In addition to the potential tanagers, we noted an adult female Rose-breasted Grosbeak in the cedar stand but little else in the way of migrant songbirds. Earlier, while admiring the Lark and Clay-colored Sparrows at the maintenance yard, we heard a singing White-eyed Vireo, and at the parking lot by the ranger station I heard a flyover Dickcissel. Best, Norm =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Norm Saunders Colesville & West Ocean City, MD marshhawk@att.net=20 =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================